Goals: Russia's Phobos-Grunt was designed to land on Mars' moon Phobos, collect soil samples and return them to Earth for study. The lander also carried scientific instruments to study Phobos and its environment. It was to travel to Mars together with Yinghuo-1, China's first mission to the Red Planet.

Accomplishments: The Phobos-Grunt/Yinghuo-1 spacecraft did not perform its scheduled burn to begin its trajectory to Mars. Both spacecraft were stranded in Earth orbit.

Phobos (right) is slowly being dragged towards Mars. In 100 million years or so Phobos will likely be shattered by stress caused by the relentless tidal forces, with the debris forming a decaying ring around Mars.

This was be Russia's first interplanetary mission since the unsuccessful Mars 96 mission.